Monstress

Stories

Baker & TaylorThis heartrending, funny and utterly original collection of stories, exploring the clash and meld of American and Filipino culture, centers around the sometimes suffocating ties of family, the melancholy of isolation and the need to find connections.

HARPERCOLL

“The debut of an electric literary talent. Brilliantly quirky, often moving, always gorgeously told….Bravo for this fabulous American fiction!”—Chang-Rae Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Native Speaker

“A wonderful story collection that’s as wide and rich and complex as the geography it spans.”— Ben Fountain, PEN/Hemingway award-winning author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevera

“Tenorio is a deep and original writer, and Monstress is simply a beautiful book.”—Jessica Hagedorn, author of Dogeaters

A luminous collection of heartbreaking, vivid, startling, and gloriously unique stories set amongst the Filipino-American communities of California and the Philippines, Monstress heralds the arrival of a breathtaking new talent on the literary scene: Lysley Tenorio. Already the worthy recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and a Stegner Fellowship, Tenorio brilliantly explores the need to find connections, the melancholy of isolation, and the sometimes suffocating ties of family in tales that range from a California army base to a steamy moviehouse in Manilla, to the dangerous false glitter of Hollywood.

Baker & TaylorThis original collection of stories, exploring the clash and meld of American and Filipino culture, centers around the sometimes suffocating ties of family, the melancholy of isolation, and the need to find connections.This heartrending, funny and utterly original collection of stories, exploring the clash and meld of American and Filipino culture, centers around the sometimes suffocating ties of family, the melancholy of isolation and the need to find connections. Original. 20,000 first printing.

Comment

An alien in your own country...I know that feeling. With so few diverse authors (and even fewer Filipino ones), I was happy to have found a book that spoke so eloquently about a place that was part of my history, and all about my present.